Like in the vein of zoo tycoon, roller coaster tycoon, sim city, or the like?

I guess I dont understand the question. If you are asking if there is any free source for the AI in games such as you speak, well, sure sort of. If you are asking what techniques developers use to create such games, well, those questions are answered all over the internet. Try asking a little bit more specific questions about what you wish to accomplish, I''m sure we can help you out a little bit more!

I guess I am asking if there is one, any engine, or library out there I could use/pay for? And two, if there is not any engine, then where would I begin to learn about this type of AI?

Nope. If it were that simple, AI guys wouldn't be so highly regarded. *chuckle*

There are a ton of links in the "resources" section here. Follow those around for a while. You will learn a lot. One thing, however, that you will NOT learn is a cheap and simple way of doing any AI.

Dave Mark
President and Lead Designer
Intrinsic Algorithm Development
"Reducing the world to mathematical equations!"

[edited by - InnocuousFox on May 19, 2002 8:47:24 PM]

AI is a generic term that encorporates a variety of techniques, each one is generally specific to the task that you wish to accomplish. For instance, you could use min-max trees for zero sum games like checkers, chess or othello, neural networks can be trained to drive cars and play chess, A-star and many other searching algorithms can be used to find a path through a set of waypoints or a graph, state machines can be used for simple action reaction situations, the list goes on and includes a lot of other topics covered in any good college AI course book.

There isnt really a generic AI engine, it really is specific to what you want to accomplish. If you want your computer player to build resources, and attack every 5 minutes then state machines would help, if you want your player to know how to get to your base, searching algorithms such as A-star would help. There are many techniques for many situations, just break the AI down into its components then figure out how to code each component.

Most of the games you mentioned fall into a specific category of games that are based around economic simulations. If you want to write an AI for that sort of game, then you really need to have an understanding of the factors that influence the model... this either means a) having access to all of these variables within the game; or b) having access to economic indicators (which is what players have).

You might consider learning some ''game theory'' and ''decision theory'' before tackling such an AI. You can find a wealth of information about these topics online.

Good luck,

Timkin